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Information management and technology

  • Last modified date:
    16 February 2007

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IMandT business case guidance

Last updated 2002

This guidance consolidates and replaces the guidance given in the NHS Capital Investment Manual and in circular HSG(95)48. The major change made by this guidance is the move to the "five-case model" of business case. This sets out the business case under five main "cases" or sections - the strategic case, the economic case, the financial case, the commercial case and the management case. All of these are explained in detail in the guidance.

The guidance is out of date in two key respects:

  • PFI is no longer regarded as an appropriate procurement route for IT schemes, so any guidance on using PFI should be disregarded;
  • The NHS IT programme now oversees the bulk of IT procurements. An NHS Trust should only be doing an independent procurement for items either completely outside the National Programme, or one of its Additional Services

The form of contract to be used will either be an NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) model contract, or one modelled on those used by Connecting for Health for the National IT programme.

Two issues to be aware of are:

  • Trusts whose projects require approval by the Private Finance Unit (PFU) of the Department of Health may not issue their Invitation To Negotiate (ITN) unless they can also include a fully compliant project agreement approved by the PFU. See guidance for more details; and
  • PFU also now require preferred bidder letters to be signed on all projects, following their very successful use in PFI build schemes. An example letter, adapted for IM&T, is attached.

Preferred bidder sample letter for IMandT schemes

Last updated 2002

PFU requires preferred bidder letters to be signed on all IMandT projects that are procuring independently of the National IT programme.  This is a modified version of the letter used for PFI build schemes.

Guidance on applying optimism bias to IMandT schemes and supporting mitigation calculation spreadsheet

Last updated 2005

This is the latest guidance for setting the upper bound for optimism bias and mitigation for NHS IMT schemes.  All schemes that reached invitation to tender after 31 March 2003 need apply optimism bias, and this guidance provides further details for IMT schemes and applies to all schemes that did not submit a FBC by May 2005.  Upper bands of 40%, 100% or 200% should be used depending on whether the system and interfaces are standard, new and untried or a combination.  An Excel file 'IMT Optimism Bias Mitigation Calculation' contains the NHS IMT tailored contributory factors with their weights.  Instructions for completing the spreadsheet are provided.  This guidance is concerned solely with optimism bias in relation to project costs, not to benefits from projects.

Revised IMandT business case evaluation criteria

Last updated 2002

Revised criteria have been prepared for the evaluation of IM&T business cases.  These are designed to correspond with the structure of the five-case model of business case at OBC and FBC stages. The criteria are set out so that business case writers can see what evaluators will expect to see in a business case. [Note: these criteria are also included in the IMandT business case guidance (see above) at Appendix C.]  The criteria have been written largely from the standpoint of one organisation, but can and should be extended to joint/collaborative procurements where appropriate. They should be used for procurements outside the National IT programme, or for independent procurements (such as for Additional Services) within NPfIT.

Standard IMandT risk register

Last updated 2001

This standard risk register should be used in all IM&T business cases- other project-specific risks can be added if necessary, and risks can be omitted if not relevant to a particular scheme.

One purpose of the standard risk register is to ensure that NHS organisations have considered all risks at each stage of their investment. It may well be appropriate for the risk management section of the business case to set out all risks to show how they will be managed. However, the Department of Health does not expect every single risk to be weighted and scored, or valued, in the economic case of the business case. This should be done for risks with high probability or high impact: low- impact, low-probability risks can be grouped together and scored or valued as groups.

The register should be used for procurements of NPfIT Additional Services, or for independent procurements. Both of these should have an additional risk in the register addressing issues of integration with NPfIT.

Guidance on handling IMandT within builds

Last updated 2002

This guidance covers the handling of IMandT within major PFI hospital builds.

Guidance on supplementary business cases for NHS Care Record Service contracts

Last updated 2005

Individual NHS organisations will need to prepare their own "supplementary" business cases to cover additional investment required for their implementation of the NHS Care Record Service.  Guidance is provided for cases for the implementation of Phases 1 and 2, PACS and for Additional Services (all phases).  It contains advice on the approval processes and on the contents of each type of case (based on the 5-case model).  It does not include information on Phase 3 of NCRS as this will be handled by NHSCfH.

As noted in Annex C of the guidance, NHS organisations preparing cases for  investments in PACS (one aspect of the NHS Care Records Service) may obtain a business case template, costing model and risk and benefits toolkit, with support, from the central  PACS team of NHS Connecting for Health. To obtain these, please email the PACS team on:  PACS.Implementation@cfh.nhs.uk

General guidance on the National Programme for IT, and on its implementation, can be obtained from the website of NHS Connecting for Health.

Authors of supplementary business cases for NHS Care Records Service contracts will also  need to take into account the revised guidance on the application of optimism bias (see above).

POISE Manual (3rd edition)

Last updated 2004

Procurement of Information Systems Effectively (POISE) was launched in 1993 and subsequently modified to meet the requirements of the Capital Investment Manual, PFI and STEP (Standards Enforcement in Procurement).  The guidance sets out best practice for all NHS bodies and is designed to cover all IM&T system and service procurements that cannot be effectively procured through existing contract routes.  POISE covers the 4 stages of the procurement phase - planning, document preparation, purchase solution (ie short listing of suppliers and contract negotiation and award) and performance of the contract.

POISE may be affected by the new EU public procurement 'Competitive Dialogue' directive (2004/18/EC) which was implemented in the UK by statutory instrument to be effective from 31 January 2006 (SI 2006/5). Further information on the new directive can be found on the OGC's website and the Department of Health has produced a guidance note for the NHS which can be found at New EU procurement directive - 'Competitive Dialogue'. The Department of Health will be producing its own guidance on the implementation of the new directive and its effect on existing NHS PFI procurement practices in due course.  Organisations intending to place OJEU notices should seek legal advice.

General index page on investment in IMandT

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